In my experience, most shots at wild pheasants are going away... straight away... in a hurry! Wild birds start this going away business at 20 or 30 yards if you're lucky. Crossing shots, like you get on quail and grouse are not so common. Further, a pheasant can absorb a lot of lead in his back. Shooting small bores with small shot only wounds birds and wastes game. In my opinion 1-1/4 oz of 5 shot in a 12 ga is ideal for wild pheasants... if you can huck a 10 guage for 8 hours, even better. Pheasants also run, so leave the setter and the 20 ga at home, get yourself a springer spaniel and a F/F 12 with some 5 shot. Its the best!!

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I've used my 28 ga. o/u with winchester AA trap loads 71/2 shot with good success provided the shots were kept at 35 yds. and under. By the way I also always take my Brittany to use him on pointed birds.

While I have no factual date to back this up, here's some opinions from a group of old Kansas boys who have shot nothing but wild pheasants for 40 years or so: 1) #6 shot patterns better than #5, 2) 1-1/4oz in a 12 gauge is preferred, 3) one of us prefers 1oz of 6's in a 16 gauge, but I won't say who :cool:.

I shoot, all my "stocked" phez with 7/8ths oz of 7's in a 12 ga ,at 1100 fps and with open choke from .010 to .000. kills them dead out to 30 yds if I hit them.:) scott

I used #7's in my 16 gauges for stocked pheasants this year without any problems. Used both 7/8 and 1 oz loads, and really didnt care which I used. The shots were pointed birds over my setters, so were all relatively close.
Side note: used #7's, 7/8 oz for grouse this year, thinking I would have fewer cripples, and more dead in the air birds, really couldnt say they were more lethal than 7 1/2's.

All depends on how old it is and how you cook it. :rotf:

Bill

It depends

Dog training, (Spaniels) on Chukar's last week the bird supplier threw in some Pheasants. 3/4 oz 7 1/2 out of my 20 G Parker Trojan is not a Pheasant load. If I had known about the Pheasants in advance would have put more and larger pellets on the job. Flushing dog you lose at least 10 yards before the bird gets up. Sometimes more.

William

Hunting and living in Ks. for over 45 yrs. with Brittany dogs, my hunting partner and I predominantly hunted quail where pheasants were abundant (north central and northeast Ks.). We both used handloaded 1 1/8 oz. 7 1/2 shot, at 1255 fps. We killed an awful lot of pheasants and I don't believe we wounded any more than anyone using bigger shot. We took reasonable shots and were decent shots. When I hunted only pheasants I would generally use 1 1/4 oz. of 6's and can't say the wound ratio was any different, but I preferred a little more oomph. I would not have any worries about shooting stocked pheasants with 7's.

Years ago, I was lucky enough to be invited to gun Springer Field Trials. We all shot 1 1/4 oz loads with tight choked guns. Obviously, we were shooting for the dogs, but our job was to kill the birds cleanly as far from the dogs as possible so the dog's marking and retrieving could be evaluated. Many of us had our own handload recipes and shot different loads in the first and second barrels.

2nd that. Training with my Boykin few weeks ago all Chukkas one shot kills 3/4 oz of 7 1/2. Two Phesants the bird supplier threw in unexpectedly, hit on the first shot feathers flying headed for thick cover hundreds of yards away. Hunted both down both flew off again in a swamp. one killed one lost. If I had used more gun would have had clean kills better for the bird and dog.

I think it's the angle plus distance that makes them hard to kill. Only answer to that is pellet size and weight.

William